Roo veterinary relief network launches in the Greater Toronto Area. Pet Age Staff//September 10, 2026// Roo, the largest veterinary workforce platform that connects over 10,000 hospitals with over 30,000 veterinary professionals, launched in Canada today, now providing flexible relief staffing across the Greater Toronto Area for veterinary professionals and clinics. This launch marks Roo's first international expansion, building on the company's existing Canadian presence, including Toronto-based team members and a 3-year running internship partnership with the University of Waterloo. Roo will give veterinary hospitals across the Greater Toronto Area easier access to relief coverage while offering Canadian veterinarians and veterinary technicians greater career flexibility. The platform also provides Canadian veterinary professionals with access to free, best-in-class continuing education from the industry's top experts, addressing a large gap in the country, where many professionals currently travel to US conferences to get the CE they need. The launch comes as Canada's veterinary workforce faces growing staffing challenges, with hospitals navigating a limited pool of veterinary professionals while working to provide continuous care and meet demand. According to the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, from now until 2031, the country is projected to face approximately 5,000 veterinary job openings with just over 4,000 job seekers. For veterinary hospitals, that gap makes it harder to maintain appointment capacity, cover vacations and parental leave, and give veterinary teams the time off they need to reduce burnout. Roo has helped hospitals navigate these pressures by providing over 4 million hours of relief, helping practices maintain continuity of care, reduce wait times, and provide quality service. As Roo's network has grown, hospitals have been able to access additional talent and, in some cases, expand their capacity to see more appointments. Currently, finding relief coverage in Canada is difficult, with hospitals relying on a mix of agencies, word of mouth, and social groups to find qualified professionals. Instead of managing shifts through time-consuming, back-and-forth emails and texts from multiple sources, hospitals can use Roo to connect directly with a larger network of veterinary professionals. With its easy-to-use platform, Roo connects hospitals directly to 30,000 vets and techs, who help add appointments and provide care to more pets in their communities. In fact, 95% of current Roo hospitals surveyed say Roo makes it easy to find relief coverage. For veterinarians and veterinary technicians, Roo provides access to shifts at over 10,000 hospitals, allowing them to choose when, where, and how often they work. Professionals can search for shifts based on factors like date, specialty, and pay, giving them more control over their schedules and earning potential. Some veterinarians have become full-time relief vets, earning over $300,000 a year through Roo, while others use it to supplement their income, paying off student loans or working toward financial goals. "We're bringing Roo to Canada to help veterinary professionals build flexible, fulfilling careers in an increasingly demanding industry," said Danny Leffel, CEO of Roo. "Roo was built around flexibility. It gives veterinarians and technicians the opportunity to choose how and when they work, while giving veterinary hospitals a flexible way to access professionals when they need coverage. Our goal is to support the teams already caring for Canadian pets by helping clinics maintain capacity, meet demand, and reduce the risk of burnout." "After more than 12 years working as a locum vet, I've seen firsthand how much the right coverage can mean to a veterinary team, and how much flexibility can mean to the people doing the work," said Dr. Marie Holowaychuk, DVM, Diplomate ACVECC, CE and Career Development speaker, and Founder of Reviving Veterinary Medicine. "Locum work has given me the freedom to build a career on my own terms, and I'm excited for Roo to bring that same flexibility and support to Canadian veterinarians and RVTs. At a time when our profession is facing so much pressure, giving people more choice and helping clinics get the support they need can make a real difference for teams and for the future of veterinary medicine."

New analytics platform bolsters veterinary workforce management. The tool, launched by Roo, is designed to give veterinary hospital leaders network-wide data on shift coverage, cancellations, utilization, and staffing gaps. July 22, 2026 Roo has launched Analytics Center, a data platform intended to help veterinary hospitals assess relief staffing performance across individual practices and multi-location networks. The San Francisco-based veterinary workforce platform says the tool provides information on shift fill rates, cancellations, relief-staffing productivity, utilization, and potential coverage gaps. The platform is now available to Roo's hospital users. Relief veterinarians and veterinary technicians are commonly used by practices to address staffing shortages, fluctuating appointment demand, employee absences, and capacity constraints. However, evaluating the operational impact of relief staffing can be difficult, particularly for organizations managing multiple locations with different staffing needs. "One of the biggest challenges practices face is simply not having visibility. For years, practices have relied on relief professionals to keep their hospitals running and protect their teams from burnout, but they've never really had a way to measure whether those staffing decisions were actually driving the outcomes they wanted," Charlotte Weir, VP of Partnerships at Roo, says in an exclusive Q&A with Veterinary Practice News. The company reports facilitating more than four million hours of relief coverage. It plans to use that history to provide hospitals with a broader view of staffing patterns, rather than limiting analysis to individual shift bookings. "When you're managing one hospital, it's challenging enough. When you're overseeing dozens (or even hundreds) of locations, it becomes nearly impossible to know what's working and where opportunities exist. Some of our largest enterprise accounts book well over 100 relief shifts a year across their networks, yet until now they've largely been making staffing decisions based on instinct rather than data," says Weir. According to Weir, the Analytics Center allows organizations to compare performance among locations and identify recurring patterns, including sites that experience lower shift-fill rates or higher cancellation activity. Such information could help leaders adjust schedules, direct relief resources to locations with greater need, and plan coverage earlier. "The metrics that matter are the ones that tell the story behind your workforce," says Weir. "With the Analytics Center, hospitals can track relief staffing metrics like shift fill rates, cancellation trends, staffing gaps, utilization across locations, and overall relief productivity, all of which help leaders understand where they're thriving and where they need to adjust." The launch comes as veterinary practices continue to contend with workforce pressures while seeking to maintain access to care, support employee well-being, and manage operational costs. "I think we're entering a really exciting chapter for veterinary medicine. The workforce challenges we face aren't going away overnight, but the way we respond to them is evolving," Weir tells Veterinary Practice News. "Data gives us the ability to be proactive instead of reactive, and we can better understand staffing trends, predict needs before they become problems, and build healthier, more sustainable hospitals."